Saturday, 16 February 2013

'Stopping' or 'Quitting' smoking with e-cigs

This is an interesting subject, and one which I will return to in more detail after the MHRA announcement that is due in March 2013.

Do electronic cigarettes help people stop or quit smoking ?

Here in the UK, the electronic cigarette industry has been very careful not to make any health claims about e-cigs. It should never be claimed that an e-cig can be used to "quit" - and this is not because it is not true (it may or may not be true) - it is because in the UK these claims are classed as medicinal claims, and any product that makes medicinal claims needs a very expensive licence from the MHRA. They are always very careful to describe e-cigs as "recreational" (which they are) but not a tool for "quitting" smoking.

But is this correct ?

Part of the problem is that people have different definitions of "quitting" - to some they feel that they have quit if they no longer smoke tobacco, to others quitting is about stopping the use of nicotine altogether.

So there is a difference between stopping smoking and quitting.

The fact of the matter is that electronic cigarettes are very good for stopping smoking, in other words no longer smoking tobacco, and there is evidence for this HERE.

All the available evidence points to the fact that smokers who go on to use electronic cigarettes on a regular basis will reduce the amount of cigarettes that they smoke or stop smoking cigarettes altogether.

Logically, this has to be the case because the opposite scenario doesn't make sense, e-cigs are not going to make you smoke MORE are they ?

"I used to smoke 20 a day and since I started using my e-cig I now smoke 30 a day as well as using my e-cig in between smokes" - this is never really going to happen, is it.

Smokers use electronic cigarettes in place of tobacco, so logically they will reduce tobacco consumption.

Regardless of what electronic cigarette companies are allowed to say, the truth of the matter is that electronic cigarettes help people to stop smoking. Whether or not people then decide to go on to "quit" nicotine is up to them.

Professor John Britton, who leads the Tobacco Advisory Group for the Royal College of Physicians recently said, in an interview with the BBC - "if all the smokers in Britain stopped smoking cigarettes and started smoking e-cigarettes we would save 5 million deaths in people who are alive today"

5 MILLION DEATHS saved - with so much at stake, e-cigarette companies must now have the shackles taken off and be allowed to tell people the TRUTH, that e-cigs can help you to stop smoking.

Now that people know that e-cigs can save 5 million deaths, anyone who takes steps to restrict them is guilty of a crime against humanity, and one day should be made to answer for their crimes.